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This photo was taken by our daughter, Sarah Timmons, or my wife, depending on who you ask. We were in Rehoboth Beach, DE on Easter Sunday, 2011.


Several years ago, on the way home from a family vacation, I picked up a notebook and quickly recorded an incident that had occurred involving our son. Eventually, I used that story to illustrate something about my spiritual walk as a believer in Christ. Thus began a deliberate attempt to document the significance of everyday events. Almost any ordinary circumstance in daily life can become fodder for another story. This, almost by definition, lends itself to a blog.

Of course, many of the entries here are just ordinary diary style stuff... the stuff of ordinary blogs. Good grief, I don't want to be ordinary.


Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Adventures of the Superhero Formerly Known as HandyMan, Chapter 7

After the incident which inspired this blog entry occurred and I had posted it, I introduced the homeowner to my blog.  I don't typically do this, but since she was our neighbor and good friend, I thought she would enjoy it, which she did. 
While I was there last week (the week of August 26, 2013) looking at some other work she and her husband wanted done, she commented about my lack of blog entries since this one (there was one lonely entry between this one written on May 28 and today, September 5, 2013.)
A couple of days ago, Debra died suddenly from what may have been a pulmonary embolism.  She was about 60 years of age, and in good health.
Our whole family loved Debra and will miss her.  She loved to tell interesting stories, and I think she would appreciate the re-posting of this one in her honor.

The morning started out with a rain shower, so Stupendously Content Man rode down to Seaford to pick up some supplies for another job.  By the time he was finished, the rain had dissipated, so he headed to a job he was trying to finish up.  He only had a day or so left on this large project which involved metal roofing.  There were multiple roofs covering the house and its various additions.


Stupendously Content Man was very eager to finish up this job.  It meant that 1) he could get paid for the work and 2) he could check it off his to-do list, as the job had been drawn out, and he was eager to mark it completed.  So motivated by items one and two, Stupendously Content Man climbed the ladder which was leaned up on the side of a shed style roof.  He surveyed the surface.  It had stopped raining, but the roof was wet.  The pitch was only moderate, and could easily be walked on under dry conditions.  He was uncertain about how much the dampness would affect his footing, so he cautiously put one foot down.  It held without a problem.  He moved off the ladder and placed the other foot down, and found it to be holding firm.  Satisfied with his analysis of the situation, he started the ascent to the area where he needed to finish off the last couple of pieces of roofing.

The Perilous 8 foot drop.
At about the third step, it became apparent that Stupendously Content Man's analysis of the footing situation was, in fact, incorrect.  Suddenly he was on his butt, and his ascent quickly turned into descent down the metal roof and towards a perilous 8 foot drop to the ground.

The normal course of action in this situation would have been to whip out your cordless drill, place a screw into the hex bit, and screw one's shirt sleeve, pant cuff, or, in the absence of either, one's own hand into the surface of the roof.  Unfortunately, the drill was the first thing dropped, and was already mid-air between the edge of the roof and the ground.

So, with cat-like reflexes, as Stupendously Content man slid past the aforementioned ladder, he twisted his body so as to be able to grab the ladder which, due to the fortunate foresight of Stupendously Content Man, had been secured with two screws to prevent it from sliding away from its position.

At this point, Stupendously Content Man made the decision to return to the ground, and continued working on tasks which could be performed from the safety of a step ladder.  Upon his return home to his wife, he described the incident, and she replied "Did you put a dent in the roof?"